Yung's Guide to Trick Room
(In-depth comprehensive guide)
- Introduction:
The premise behind Trick Room Teams is to utilize the Trick Room move which can really shake up a battle to the unprepared opponent.
Trick Room - For 5 turns, slower Pokemon move first. (Priority -7)
Essentially Trick Room reverses the Speed of the Pokemon on the field for 5 turns meaning that a Slowbro is faster than Jolteon or Deoxys-S.
In order to get to use the move you'll need either a bulky Trick Room user or otherwise make good use of Focus Sash. Also, despite the fact that the move says 5 moves it really only works for 4 moves because the turn it is applied counts as Turn 1. Higher priority moves will still get their priority brack but with reverse speed. If you're really interested in this:
The basic premise to a good Trick Room Team is to set up Trick Room and then wreck your opponent by using high Attack low Speed Pokemon, this really allows some Pokemon to shine in OU and even UBers when they normally don't breach RU due to their damaging Speed stats. Escavalier is a prime example of this;
Escavalier
70 HP
135 ATT
105 DEF
60 SPA
105 SPD
20 SPE
It also has a decent move pool which allows it to threaten Psychic users tremendously due to the Bug Type move Megahorn. Beyond abusing your opponent with high Attack low Speed Pokemon you also get the advantage of throwing your opponent off their normal play style and tactics. A Choice Scarf Pokemon for example goes from increasing its Speed to 1.5x to cutting it down to .5 the complete opposite effect. Since Choice Scarf item users such as Jirachi tend to rely on Speed to make the difference this cripples them in battle.
- Setting Up with Trick Room
Setting up with Trick Room can be challenging, especially with the vast threat of Taunt users, however when done strategically it is what makes or breaks your team. When you do find yourself under Taunt the best thing you can do is remove the Taunt user first and then reset your Trick Room after the Taunt has worn off. This can be tedious but one of the advantages of running a Trick Room Team is that you're able to invest into Bulk on your Pokemon and they should be available to absorb several hits from your opponents, especially already bulky Pokemon such as Snorlax or Slowbro, and you can then use that time to buff your own Pokemon or remove/cripple some opposition. Once you have your Trick Room set let your slow sweepers wreck havoc on your opponent. One thing to bear in mind is that your opponent could have a Pokemon or two that could take advantage of Trick Room as easily as you can so be sure to bear in mind which Pokemon you should be using based on what they have so you can have coverage options for when they switch in their own Trick Room benefitting Pokemon.
- Tips to using Trick Room
One of the other things to be wary of besides Taunt is the move Encore because just as Taunt can prevent you from setting up Trick Room, Encore can actually force your to reverse it. If Trick Room is used while the field is under the effect of Trick Room it cancels itself out and switching the field back to normal.
Hazards don't forget about Hazards; Stealth Rock, Spikes, Toxic Spikes, etc. (You can view a guide about Entry Hazards here.) A Trick Room Team needs to be able to set up Hazards and remove them same as any other team would.
Keep your Trick Room setters alive, once their gone you lose your advantage and often the battle. Favoring bulkier Pokemon as your setters is a good strategy, it is often also advised to avoid using only Psychic and Ghost Pokemon (common Trick Room setters) as they have many counters on normal OU teams.
- Counters to Trick Room
As previously mentioned Taunt is a heavy threat preventing set up of Trick Room at all. This is more of an issue since Trick Room is -7 Priority and the Pokemon should certainly be slower than yours in the first place.
Encore can get a Trick Room Team stuck into reversing Trick Room and losing the effect.
Hazards when left unchecked can prove disastrous for a Trick Room Team since they have to switch in your setters and sweepers so often to use Trick Room.
Stall. Yes, that's right, Stall. If you can Stall your opponent you can usually wear down bulky Trick Room users until you can use a Priority to knock them out or otherwise incapacitate them.
Thundurus - Despite having a base Speed of 111 Thundurus takes advantage of Prankster and the move Thunderwave to incapactitate Trick Room Teams. With high Attack and Special Attack base stats it can easily wear down the bulk of most Trick Room teams.
